However, in China where military service is voluntary, the army is made up mostly of senior middle school graduates and officers who have received additional training at one of China's military universities. College students remain a relatively small portion of the military's composition.

    China is now trying to recruit more.

    To do that, the government has implemented many favourable policies that vary according to the area from which the soldier comes. Some recruits, for example, will not have to pay their college tuition when they have completed their service.

    "The financial support could be a relief for some students from poverty-stricken areas who can't pay the tuition fees," said Yang Ping, director of Shenzhen University's military affairs department.

    But for most of the applicants, serving in the army is not money-driven; rather, it is about accomplishing a childhood dream.

    When Huang Wenchuan was a lad, he was fascinated by the war stories told by his grandfather, a former soldier who served the People's Liberation War (1945-49).

    "My grandpa managed to escape death through the bullets. I just love his heroic stories," Huang said. "In peacetime, to become a soldier is still a man's dream."

    For the single-child generation, the military is a place to built characters and temper wills, Huang said.

    "I have lived a comfortable life for 19 years," he said, "and I want something that is different, that tests the ability to endure hardship."

    On campus, discipline, a quality emphasized by the army, is lacking, said Wang Linfei, a Tsinghua University sophomore, who also applied this year.

    "No one orders me when to study, where to go or when to go to sleep," Wang said. "Day by day, I become too loose, undisciplined."

    Sometimes Wang, who studies at the College of Software, plays computer games into the night or plays basketball instead of studying.

    "I want to steel my will and further discipline myself through military training," Wang said. "When I came back, I will still be a student in Tsinghua. I have nothing to lose, but I gain two years of experience in the army."

    In fact, some student soldiers found being in the army a good way to escape job-hunting pressures near graduation.

    Zhang Feilong joined the military last November and was sent to the Tibet Autonomous Region as a clergyman for a logistics troop.

    "The last year at school, I felt there were just too many graduates but fewer job vacancies," said Zhang, who studied psychology. "I thought the military experience might make my resume look better."